The road provided some much
needed relief for the Sharks on Wednesday night, as the Sharks kicked off a
4-game stint away from HP Pavilion with a 3-2 win over the Los Angeles Kings at
the Staples Center. Milan Michalek scored a pair of goals to lead the Sharks to
their league best 13th win on the road this season.

Michalek scored his
11th goal of the season midway through the opening period to help the Sharks
snap out of their duldrums. San Jose hadn't scored a 1st period goal in 5
games.

Joe Pavelski added his 8th of the season three minutes later on a
backhand shot from outside the right post. Pavelski tried sliding the puck on
net as he skated from behind the Kings net, when the puck bounced back to his
stick. His shot sailed over Kings goaltender Jason Labarbera's left shoulder
for teh 2-0 lead.

Pavelski's shot was on the 9th that Labarbera saw on
the evening, and it would be his last. Kings head coach Marc Crawford quickly
pulled Labarbera in place of Jean Sebastien Aubin.

Aubin calmed things
down in the Kings defensive zone, which allowed the Kings to mount some
offensive pressure. That pressure led to a stream of Sharks penalties early in
the 2nd period.

After Christian Ehrhoff was sent off for cross checking,
the Kings struck with a Rob Blake goal on the ensuing power play. Quick puck
movement foced Sharks goaltender Evgeni Nabokov to move laterally in the
crease, opening a hole for Blake who cranked a shot from 40 feet into the
Sharks goal.

Things got dicey for the Sharks with 2:40 remaining in the
period, when defenseman Craig Rivet was assessed a match penalty for intent to
injure Kings forward Ladislav Nagy.Rivet was upset with a cross check that
Nagy had dolled out, so the Sharks defenseman responded with his own cross
check that came up on Nagy, catching him in the throat.

Rivet was tossed
from the game, and teh Sharks were forced to kill offa 5-minute
major.

The Sharks dodged that bullet, then struck back with Michalek's
second goal at 3:24 of teh 3rd period.

San Jose seemed well in control of the game,
until defenseman Matt Carle took an ill-advised slashing penalty with 33
seconds left in regulation.

After Aubin was pulled to give the Kings a
2-man advantage, Lubomir Visnovksy answered with the Kings second power play
goal of the night just 5 seconds into Carle's penalty to cut the Sharks lead to
a single goal.

Nabokov weathered the storm to preserve the victory, but
the Sharks had to be wondering if they had almost let another win slip through
their fingers with more late mistakes.

Game Notes:

Jonathan Cheechoo returned to the lineup after missing several games
with a groin injury.

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